Legacy 68:5 National Foster Care Awareness Month
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The month of May is National Foster Care Awareness Month, a time to reflect on the realities faced by children and families involved in the foster care system, and to recognize the individuals and organizations working to support them. While many people are familiar with the headlines surrounding foster care and adoption, few understand the journey families often experience after saying “yes” to opening their homes.
Rooted in Psalm 68:5-6a, Legacy 68:5, our Adoption, Foster & Orphan Care ministry, was created in response to that very need.
“A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families.” - Psalm 68:5-6a
What organically started as a grassroots effort to provide connection, community, and financial support for adoptive families, has now grown into a ministry with local clinical care, bilingual support, and global partnerships. Today, Legacy 68:5 serves more than 350 families through its online community and ministry programs across all Houston’s First campuses. The ministry connects foster, adoptive, and kinship families through gatherings, classes, trainings, wrap-around care, prayer support, and clinical services.
The Reality Beyond the Headlines
Foster care and adoption stories are often presented in extremes: either deeply inspiring or heartbreaking. While those stories are real, ministry leaders say most families live somewhere in the middle.
It is the foster mother sitting at a support gathering, finally admitting she feels overwhelmed and unsure if she can continue. It is the adoptive father and child learning to build trust together after early experiences of trauma. It is the family that finalized an adoption 15 years ago, but still needs encouragement, counseling, and community as their child enters adolescence.
Families often discover that becoming a family is not a single moment; it is an unfolding journey. Foster care and adoption journeys are often shaped by early experiences of disruption, grief, trauma, abuse, or neglect, which are realities that affect the entire family, not just the child. Even families formed through infant adoption can navigate the effects of disrupted attachment and prenatal stress together.
Only about 2% of parents are adoptive parents, meaning many families navigating these experiences can feel alone in their communities. In our prayer guide, Legacy 68:5 identifies five major struggles foster and adoptive families commonly face: isolation, discouragement, fear, weariness, and failure.
As Pam Parrish writes in Battle-Weary Parents, the journey of healing together as a family “is a marathon, not a sprint.”
Supporting Families for the Long Haul
Rather than offering only short-term support, Legacy 68:5 provides support groups, training opportunities, mentoring, prayer initiatives, and wrap-around care teams that help families navigate difficult seasons. Through its Assistance Fund, Legacy 68:5 also provides grants to reduce the financial barriers of adoption and help families access ongoing therapeutic care.
Toni Steere, Director of Legacy 68:5, often asks families a simple question: “Right now, who is praying for you and your family?”
Too often, the answer is no one.
The ministry emphasizes that while not everyone is called to foster or adopt, everyone can play a role in supporting vulnerable children and families. Whether serving through prayer, mentorship, meals, childcare, or financial support, church members are encouraged to help families remain connected and sustained throughout the journey.
The Oaks: A New Model of Care
One of the ministry’s most significant developments came in September 2024 through the Kainos initiative at Houston’s First with the opening of The Oaks, a holistic, multidisciplinary therapeutic program created specifically for foster, adoptive, and kinship families.
The Oaks provides trauma-informed counseling, occupational therapy, parent education, and clinical support.
Since its launch in 2024, The Oaks has provided more than 3,000 sessions, including over 1,000 sessions serving children who have encountered the child welfare system.
Expanding Beyond Houston
While Legacy 68:5 remains rooted in Houston, its influence now extends far beyond the city. This ministry partners with the Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO), Alianza Cristiana para los Huerfanos — a Latin American organization — and The Riverside Project, a Houston-based organization, to strengthen support systems for vulnerable children and families.
In 2025, Houston’s First also hosted the CAFO Summit at The Loop Campus, bringing together church leaders, professionals, and caregivers from across the world committed to caring for vulnerable children. Legacy 68:5 also remains fully bilingual, offering Spanish-language classes, resources, and support for Spanish-speaking families.
Even as the ministry grows, leaders say the heartbeat remains the same: the church stepping forward to care for vulnerable children and families.
More Than Awareness
As National Foster Care Awareness Month continues, Legacy 68:5 encourages people to move beyond awareness alone and toward meaningful action.
Start with prayer. Download our Intercessor Prayer Guide and commit to praying for Legacy 68:5 families this month.
As the Christian Alliance for Orphans says,
“Sometimes prayer enables us to request things and receive them. More often and more importantly, it allows us to align our hearts with God’s and put ourselves in a position of wanting the things He wants” (CAFO).
Then take the next step and fill out our Interest Form. Whether it leads to fostering, adopting, serving as a PATHMAKER, giving to the Assistance Fund, or attending a class like Exploring Adoption and Foster Care, that one step moves awareness into action.
For Legacy 68:5, caring for vulnerable children and families is more than a ministry; it is the church walking alongside every member of the family as they heal, grow, and flourish together.
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